Conventional landscape sprinkler systems set irrigation schedules manually at the beginning of a watering season and are typically not adjusted based on weather. Additionally, homeowners typically lack knowledge about landscaping and sprinkler systems to create an optimal irrigation schedule. This often results in an over-watered lawn with wasted water as runoff, an under-watered lawn, or both depending on the sprinkler zone or location within the sprinkler zone.
Recent advances in watering systems include smart watering systems. Smart watering systems control irrigation schedules of a sprinkler system. This may include automatically updating irrigation schedules based on qualitative and quantitative feedback and meteorological data. Smart sprinkler systems may match optimal or near-optimal irrigation schedules to sprinkler zones based on landscaping and sprinkler system characteristics. An example of a smart watering system is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0319941, entitled “System and method for an improved sprinkler control system,” filed May 6, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference for any and all purposes.
Some watering systems include sensors for detecting environmental conditions and may use those conditions to change a planned watering event. For example, a sprinkler system may include a rain sensor that cancels a planned watering event when the precipitation reaches a certain threshold. For example, when a threshold of water is absorbed (e.g., 0.5″) by the rain sensor, the rain sensor sends a trip signal to the sprinkler controller, this trip signal persists until the sensor dries out. Conventional controllers use this signal to cancel a watering event, only if the signal is activated during the scheduled watering event. Accordingly, scheduling changes are dependent on the rain sensor activation window and in instances where the watering event occurs outside the saturation window of the rain sensor, the watering event may not be skipped. In this manner, vegetation may receive more water than needed, wasting water and potentially harming the vegetation.